Russia may experience a shortage of potatoes for processing

Russia is facing a potential shortage of potatoes for the production of French fries and chips due to a significant reduction in the import of sealed potatoes, which make up 95% of Russia's seed supply. The decrease is attributed to a ban on imports from the Netherlands and a shift towards domestically bred seeds, which currently account for 6.7% of total seed material use. We Fry is planning to double its potato processing capacity by January 2025, which could mitigate the shortage.

Russia may experience a shortage of potatoes for the production of French fries and chips due to its 95% dependence on imported seeds and a reduction in their import, writes pole.rf, citing Alexey Krasilnikov, Executive Director of the Union of Potato and Vegetable Market Participants (Potato Union). According to him, if on average 10-12 thousand tons of seed potatoes (mainly varieties for industrial processing) were imported from the European Union annually in recent years, then this season only 290 tons were imported from Germany, although the import quota is about 16 thousand tons. Another 400-500 tons were delivered from Belarus. The reduction in import is, in particular, due to the ban by Rosselkhoznadzor on deliveries from the Netherlands for phytosanitary reasons. Previously, Russia annually imported about 5 thousand tons of high-quality seeds (elite, super-superelite, etc.) from the country. "Processors are currently racking their brains over how and from what raw ...